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Vol. 96, Issue 20, 11067-11068, September 28, 1999

This paper is a summary of a session presented at the first Chinese-American Frontiers of Science symposium, held August 28-30, 1998, at the Arnold and Mabel Beckman Center of the National Academies of Sciences and Engineering in Irvine, CA.

From the Academy
 Testing ancient RNA-protein interactions

Laura F. Landweber*

Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Princeton University, Princeton, NJ 08544

The past decade in molecular biology has seen remarkable advances in the study of the origin and early evolution of life. The mathematical tools for analyzing DNA and protein sequences, coupled with the availability of complete microbial genome sequences, provide insight almost as far back as the age of the nucleic acids themselves. Experimental evolution in the laboratory and especially in vitro evolution of RNA provide insight into a hypothetical world where RNA, or a close relative, may have debuted as a primary functional and informational molecule. The ability to isolate new functional RNAs from random sequences now ultimately makes the world of possible primitive chemical interactions accessible even when the molecules or reactions are no longer present in modern species. Thus we can at last form direct experimental tests of specific models for the origin of RNA-protein associations, such as those that influenced the genetic code. This marks a turning point for probing the origin and early history of life at the molecular level.

*   To whom reprint requests should be addressed. E-mail: lfl{at}princeton.edu.

Copyright © 1999 by The National Academy of Sciences  0027-8424/99/9611067-2$2.00/0
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